Oklahoma Football Coach Lincoln Riley has reportedly indicated that he will not disclose infections to gain a competitive advantage over opponents. When can we … Every day pandemic sport becomes further normalized as a mechanism for coping with the sheer abnormality of living with a global virus. “We have to get out and vote for President Trump because re-electing him Is our only chance to leave the next generation with the same heritage, beliefs, and opportunities that Ann and I had and that many of you had. No one understands these developments better than the players who live them. And while NFL players leave money on the table, college athletic laborers are left with uncertainty regarding their scholarships and their athletic futures. We would be remiss to ignore the role of media coverage in this general atmosphere of opacity. The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. What Else Will He Lose This Senior Year? CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Commissioner.com is a registered trademark of CBS Interactive Inc. site: media | arena: collegefootball | pageType: stories | These athletes are not alone. It’s been almost two months since then. "The good thing is, most of them are going to be asymptomatic or benign. He stressed those numbers could change. Hmm let me guess REVENUE.” Reid’s understandable frustration echoed comments from Ramogi Huma, founder and president of National College Players Association, in USA Today reporting about what he had been hearing from “more than two dozen football players upset about how Covid-19 testing is being handled by their respective schools.”, Huma told the paper: “These players I’m talking to are really angry. That organization, known as Pac-12 Football Unity, planned to boycott all “fall camps and football games” until they receive a “written contract with the Pac-12 that legally ensures [they] are offered “safe play during Covid-19”, assurances against “racial injustice”, “economic rights & fair compensation”, protection for “all sports”, and “long-term health insurance”. But that looks increasingly like a mirage. They just keep quiet, to those involved within the program or otherwise, and do everything within their power to get to the next Saturday.”. That’s how a college football player who reached out to the Guardian summarized the experience he and his teammates are enduring at a Power Five school as it prepares to kick off the 2020 season in a few weeks’ time. On Oct. 20, the Washtenaw County Health Department issued a stay-in-place order for University of Michigan undergrads due to a spike in cases; the Michigan football team will kick off its season on Oct. 24, in Minneapolis against the University of Minnesota. College football teams are returning to campus for voluntary workouts with the goal of an on-time start to the 2020 season. This is all incredibly alarming given the rate of asymptomatic carriers being as high as 40% as reported by some studies. That suspension matches the one implemented by the Pac-12. But UCLA is not the only place this pushback is happening. They are truly, genuinely angry. Nowhere, apparently, but college football. Throughout the process my teammates and I have joked about how false this whole voluntary pretense feels.”. The focus on how COVID makes playing and winning more challenging serves only to normalize the virus as just another inexorable feature of the game, thus absolving universities and broadcasters of responsibility for producing the conditions under which players might be exposed.